SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR GENERATING CROSS-CLOUD COMPUTING APPLIANCES

• US 20110214124A1
• Filed: 02/26/2010
• Published: 09/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2010
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: FERRIS, James Michael, Riveros, Gerry Edward
• Application Number:
  US12/714,315
• Publication Number:
  US 20110214124A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for generating cross-cloud computing appliances. A vendor, developer, or other user can generate one or more sets of computing appliances, comprising special-purpose pre-configured physical or virtual machines. The vendor can register an image of the one or more appliances to an image generation service, which can store that image along with the subscription model desired for that set of appliances. The image generation service can generate, test, and install a set of cloud-based images of the underlying appliances to a cloud environment including multiple, diverse clouds. The image generation service can adjust the cloud-based images as well as the subscription model to match the services and other resources of individual clouds, and ensure compatibility across multiple clouds. The image generation service can also track usage data for billing or other purposes.

Claims

1. A method of generating a software deployment in a cloud environment, comprising:

registering a set of appliance images to an image database;

receiving a subscription model for each appliance image from a set of vendors providing the set of appliance images;

generating a set of cloud-based images based on the set of appliance images and a set of resource profiles for a set of cloud-based networks;

adapting the subscription model for each appliance image to at least one corresponding cloud in the set of cloud-based networks; and

instantiating the set of cloud-based images in the set of cloud-based networks based on the adapted subscription model.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each cloud-based network comprises a set of resource servers configured to deliver resources to instantiate the set of cloud-based images.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the subscription model comprises at least one of licensing information or a set of entitlements to usage of the set of cloud-based images.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the subscription model comprises a set of entitlements, and the set of entitlements comprises comprises at least one of a maximum number of cloud-based images in the set of cloud-based images, a maximum number of users of the set of cloud-based images, a maximum run time for the set of cloud-based images, or a set of support services related to the set of cloud-based images.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the adapting the subscription model to at least one corresponding cloud comprises increasing or decreasing at least one of at least one of a maximum number of cloud-based images in the set of cloud-based images, a maximum number of users of the set of cloud-based images, or a maximum run time for the set of cloud-based images, or a set of support services related to the set of cloud-based images to match the set of resource profiles for the at least one corresponding cloud.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising aggregating the set of cloud-based images for at least one cloud in the set of cloud-based networks to generate a vendor cloud catalog.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising updating the vendor cloud catalog based on updates to at least one of the set of appliance images or the set of cloud-based images.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a set of cloud-based images comprises performing validation testing of the set of cloud-based images in at least one of the cloud-based networks.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of appliance images comprises at least one of an image of a physical machine or an image of a virtual machine.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the set of appliance images comprises at least one of a set of installed operating system software or a set of application software.

17. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to update the vendor cloud catalog based on updates to at least one of the set of appliance images or the set of cloud-based images.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein generating a set of cloud-based images comprises performing validation testing of the set of cloud-based images in at least one of the cloud-based networks.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of appliance images comprises at least one of an image of a physical machine or an image of a virtual machine.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the set of appliance images comprises at least one of a set of installed operating system software or a set of application software.

11. A system for managing an image generation service in a cloud environment, comprising:

a network interface to a set of cloud-based networks; and

a processor, communicating with the set of cloud-based networks to execute the image generation service, the processor being configured to

register a set of appliance images to an image database,

receive a subscription model for each appliance image from a set of vendors providing the set of appliance images,

generate a set of cloud-based images based on the set of appliance images and a set of resource profiles for the set of cloud-based networks,

adapt the subscription model for each appliance image to at least one corresponding cloud in the set of cloud-based networks, and

instantiate the set of cloud-based images in the set of cloud-based networks based on the adapted subscription model.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each cloud-based network comprises a set of resource servers configured to deliver resources to instantiate the set of cloud-based images.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the subscription model comprises at least one of licensing information or a set of entitlements to usage of the set of cloud-based images.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the subscription model comprises a set of entitlements, and the set of entitlements comprises comprises at least one of a maximum number of cloud-based images in the set of cloud-based images, a maximum number of users of the set of cloud-based images, a maximum run time for the set of cloud-based images, or a set of support services related to the set of cloud-based images.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein adapting the subscription model to at least one corresponding cloud comprises increasing or decreasing at least one of at least one of a maximum number of cloud-based images in the set of cloud-based images, a maximum number of users of the set of cloud-based images, or a maximum run time for the set of cloud-based images, or a set of support services related to the set of cloud-based images to match the set of resource profiles for the at least one corresponding cloud.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to aggregate the set of cloud-based images for at least one cloud in the set of cloud-based networks to generate a vendor cloud catalog.